On March 19, Alyssa Snow, design and production junior, found her car had been broken into and her lights switched on, leaving the car battery dead.
Snow said she was walking on the second floor of the Methodist Hall parking garage when she noticed the trunk of her car was ajar, but thought nothing of it. When trying to open the car, she said her key fob wasn’t responding, so she opened the driver’s side door manually.
“When I got into the car, I saw that the glove compartment and center console were open,” Snow said. “I’m really good about not leaving things out, so I couldn’t think of any other reason why things would be all over the place.”
Snow said her insurance and owner’s manual were scattered across the seats and loose change was sprinkled throughout the floor.
“I don’t keep any valuables in my car,” Snow said. “It must have been someone checking car doors. I think the thought is more scary than anything else.”
The Methodist Hall parking garage requires a key card to enter both the garage’s gate and the entrance door to the building. Snow said she called the OCU Police Department to log the incident but originally had no intention of filling out a report since nothing was stolen or damaged.
“A woman answered the phone. I used the phrase, ‘My car got broken into. I don’t think anything’s missing, but my car needs a jump now,’” Snow said. “They said it would be a good idea to fill out a statement, just to have one on file.”
Dexter Nelson, chief of police for OCUPD, said though a report was filed, there wasn’t much the department could do since there was no concrete evidence of damage or breaking into the vehicle.
“The possibility that someone was in there was good, but the intent is unclear,” Nelson said. “From our experience, even if someone doesn’t take anything from a car, there’s usually some indication of forced entry. Her battery was dead, and her trunk was open, but we didn’t really have any information.”
Though things in the car had been disturbed, Nelson said it would be impossible to tell for sure whether someone had actually broken in because neither Snow nor the officer on the case could determine whether anything was missing.
To better prevent this from happening to students in the future, Nelson said the easiest security steps to take are to lock car doors securely and hide smaller items like phone chords, coin purses and change. Above all, Nelson said students should make absolutely sure there are no purses, backpacks or electronics left in cars.
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